McEnaney Escapes Jam in 9th for Reds Win: Rose comes to life
"And this one belongs to the Reds..."
Ladies and gentlemen there may be some bad news for the rest of the National League and some good news for the Queen City. Charlie Hustle has come to life. The Cincinnati third baseman entered the game Friday night with a sub .200 batting average. However, in the bottom of the fifth Pete Rose connected with a fastball that whistled into the right-center gap to give the Reds their first run and cut an Astro lead to 2-1. The game remained that way a while until Rose led off the bottom of the 8th with another double. After a Joe morgan walk, Rose was brought around to score thanks to a double off the left field wall by Tony Perez. Morgan then came home to score on a George Foster single up the middle to give the Reds a 3-2 lead heading into the 9th. Rawly Eastwick, who had tossed a perfect 8th came back out for the 9th and immediately surrendered a single to Greg Gross and then a double to Jose Cruz to put 2 runners in scoring position. Reds manager Sparky Anderson had seen enough and made the call to the bullpen for left-hander Will McEnaney. McEnaney walked Rob Andrews to load the bases. He would then induce a ground ball to third base where Pete Rose would stab it and get the force out at home. McEnaney got Bob watson and Skip Jutze to hit twin fly balls to Dave Concepcion and the Reds escaped victorious. The Reds (7-4), will host the Astros again tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 PM EST.